Can't sort. Sorting cannot produce a determinable result.

[AceTheWiz]

I have a string property named "name". When I choose it to sort I get an error. "Sorting cannot produce a determinable result. Please pick another property"

VSC Version: 1.90.1 (user setup) Commit: 611f9bfce64f25108829dd295f54a6894e87339d Date: 2024-06-11T21:01:24.262Z Electron: 29.4.0 ElectronBuildId: 9593362 Chromium: 122.0.6261.156 Node.js: 20.9.0 V8: 12.2.281.27-electron.0 OS: Windows_NT x64 10.0.19045

Any ideas.?

[fvclaus]

This message occurs when the property has one or more non unique values. It should ask you to pick another property, like so:

[AceTheWiz]

Thanks for the reply.

I did see the dropdown to choose another property, but I specifically want to sort on the name property.

And yes, the name property does have duplicates but I was hoping it would sort regardless.

Is there a possibility to override or configure the requirement for unique values ?

[fvclaus]

Is there any reason you don't want to pick another property to sort the objects with the same value of your first sort property?

[fvclaus]

Of course such a feature could be added (it is currently not supported) and I remember thinking about it. I just never saw a reason to do so.

[fvclaus]

For example, this array:

[
  {
        "name": "Bob",
        "email": "bob43@gmail.com",
        "age": 36
    },
    {
        "name": "Shyam",
        "email": "shyam23@gmail.com",
        "age": 28
    },
    {
        "name": "Bob",
        "email": "bob32@gmail.com",
        "age": 41
    },
    {
        "name": "John",
        "email": "john@gmail.com",
        "age": 33
    },
    {
        "name": "Ram",
        "email": "ram@gmail.com",
        "age": 23
    },
    {
        "name": "Bob",
        "email": "bob43@gmail.com",
        "age": 36
    }
]

has 3 occurrences of Bob. You could either sort by email as the second sort property or by age and email (because 36 appears twice). The Bobs would be sorted among each other by email and among the rest of the objects by name.

[AceTheWiz]

Is there any reason you don't want to pick another property to sort the objects with the same value of your first sort property?

The first prompt I get is this where I chose name.

The second prompt I get is this

I thought that if I chose another property (e.g description), then it would only sort on description and not sort on the name property anymore.

Now, from your explanation and example, I understand that that the "pick another property to sort the objects" actually adds additional fields to the sort. So, the sort then uses multiple fields to sort.

I tried again and kept adding properties to the sort (2nd image above) until it actually sorted successfully as I wanted. 👍

As an improvement, I suggest the text should say "pick an additional property to produce a successful sort"

Thanks again for your time and for creating this useful extension.